The Baytown Sun from Baytown, Texas • Page 18

4-C THE BAYTOWN SUN Sunday, June 22, 1986 Cesar Romero remembers 'good old days' of film making By JERRY BUCK LOS ANGELES (AP) The courtly Cesar Romero, now starring in a prime-time television soap opera, is unabashedly nostalgic about the elegant good old days of Hollywood and the "security" of the big studios. Romero, the 69-year-old grandson of the Cuban patriot and martyr Jose Marti, is currently playing Jane Wyman's husband in "Falcon Crest" on CBS. "I'd never worked with Jane before," says Romero, deeply tanned with snow-white hair and mustache and attired completely in white. "She was at Warner Bros, and I was at Fox. But in those days you knew everybody.

There was a motion picture colony. There was a society, a very elegant society. "We had wonderful private parties then. Now, the only parties are benefits. Mary Pickford, Carol Lombard, and many others used to give elegant parties.

Where are the big stars today? They don't even live here. The studios as we knew them don't even exist any more. "A lot of people knock the old studio system, but I thought it was wonderful. You had such great security. When I was on Broadway we had no security, whatsoever.

You'd rehearse a Photographer prefers not to teach classes By SANDY COLTON AP Newsfeatures I have always, with few exceptions, declined invitations to teach or lecture about photography. I still shamefully remember the last exception. All of my life I've been on the run, balancing many jobs at once, never having the luxury to devote as much time to a project as I'd like to. As a result, I've become a great procrastinator. That's the way it was at my last lecture.

I'd been working overtime on other projects until it came time to fly to a Midwestern university to talk about photojournal ism. During the flight I hurriedly scribbled notes, an outline for my talk, finishing just before we landed. The trouble with being an old photographer is that eventually you tend to do everything by rote without really thinking. Unless asked, many of the things that I do seem so simple to me that it just doesn't occur to me to explain them. On the plane, I asked questions and then answered them, trying to keep it all in sort of logical order.

I arrived at the university shortly before lecture time, took my place at the podium in a packed auditorium, and took out my scribbled notes. My handwriting was so bad I couldn't read a word. I panicked! I apologized to the students and faculty, explaining what had happened, and asked for questions. The first and only question I got was from a young lady who wanted to know why my organization had not hired more female photographers! Nothing was asked about becoming a photojournalist or about specific photographic problems, all of which was buried someplace in my undecipherable notes! I was devastated. That was many years ago, in the very early days of the equal rights movement.

Since that time my organization has hired many female photographers who have done an excellent job and won many awards. And I never accepted another speak- Jng engagement. I'm semi-retired now and have occasionally thought of teaching but haven't outgrown my peripatetic ways and still procrastinate. FORMERLY UNI-SEX HAIR MACHINE NOW OPEN UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT Sculptured Nails Perm Special Senior Citizens Shampoo and Set Honored on Monday and Tuesday 6 00 STYLIST TO SERVE YOU: Bonnie Caraway Robin Wilder OWNER: Judy Humphrey Walk-ins Welcome 422-6400 2803 N. Alexander Dr.

play for four weeks then and not get paid." Romero, who started out in show business as a ballroom dancer, starred in a series of movies as "The Cisco Kid" in the 1930s. But without a doubt his most famous role was as the Joker in "Batman" on ABC in the 1960s. In "Falcon Crest," Romero plays shipping magnate Peter Stavros. Romero joined the show in September, a year after Mel Ferrer left. Ferrer's character, who had been married to Angela Channing (Miss Wyman), was killed off two years ago in a plane crash cliff-hanger that ended the season, "I was an old sweetheart of hers," Romero says.

"She was in trouble, on the verge of losing Falcon Crest. So she decided to call me. I had become a tvery rich and powerful tycoon. And we eventually got married." This season also ended with a cliff-hanger as an earthquake! struck the valley where the Falcon Crest Winery is located. It's expected that several cast members will not survive the quake and will not be back next season.

Romero was born in New York City. His father was a sugar broker and his maternal grandfather was Jose Marti, the first IN lermas IN TH6 NV TV WOWS' 1 BELOW. KIN ESM IQIOMIg Rill IglRl To sreu. rue of BUI A REGULAR DINNER AND GET YOUR 2ND DINNER firr WT 3 I Coupon not volld with any other jpecial or buffet. Exp.

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2710 Bttttefround Road 479-1521 DMR president of Free Cuba who was killed in the Cuban Revolution of Independence, known in this country as the Spanish- American War. Romero's father lost all his money in the sugar crash and he began his career as a dancer in 1926. "I came right out of prep school and Lisbeth Higgins and I became a dance team," he says. "We were known as 'Lisbeth and Romero, Autocrats of the "I never thought I'd be in show business, it was so far from anything in my family. I was working in a bank when Lisbeth suggested it.

I thought dancing was fun. We got a job in Busby Berkeley's show 'Lady I danced four years with her and other partners. Then I went into acting. "in the first play I did, 'Strictly I was a leading man. Margaret Sullivan was the leading lady's understudy.

She talked about her boyfriend named Hank. He came to visit the theater once. It was Henry Fonda, whom she later Romero came to Hollywood for a small part in "The Thin Man" in 1934. He was under contract to MGM, but after "British Agent" he was given "my walking papers:" Next he was under contract to Universal- New wave commercials compete with cable LOS ANGELES (AP) The television commercial's biggest competition was once the kitchen or the bathroom, but electronic advances of the 1980s have raised the battle for attention to new creative heights. "It's gotta be entertaining, it's gotta grab the viewer," said Josef Lubinsky, writer of music for the compelling, mood-soaked Levi's 501 jeans commercials.

"You can't say, 'Look here, this is the anymore. You have to make the widget fly into space and come back down." Lubinsky, 32, is part of a crew devoted to finding ways of putting the widget in orbit with viewers, and the blast from their ideas may singe the stragglers. Commercials are now aimed at grabbing emotions rather than feeding information. Some are mini-epics that evoke patriotism, romance or a particular lifestyle in just 30 seconds. These new-wave commercials typically are aimed at affluent baby boomers and feature either a catchy new jingle or a hit song from the 1960s, platinum production qualities and little or no announcing.

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